Origin

Prior to the establishment of Hong Kong, the name hong was given to major business houses using the Chinese word (Chinese:行; pinyin:háng; Jyutping:hong4; literally: "profession") based in Canton. The Thirteen Factories were the original Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) hongs permitted to engage in foreign trade under the aegis of the cohong.

The original Canton factories faded from the scene after the First Opium War (1839–1842), just prior to Hong Kong's economic birth and hence had little effect on the new colony's development. One of the earliest Foreign Hongs established was Jardine Matheson & Co., who bought Lot No. 1 at the first Hong Kong land sale in 1841.[1] In 1843 the same firm established a mainland China headquarters on the Bund in Shanghai, just south of the British Consulate. The building was known as "the Ewo Hong", or "Ewo House", based on the Cantonese pronunciation of the company's Chinese name (怡和行, Cantonese: Yiwo Hong, now 怡和洋行).[2] Jardines took the name from the earlier Ewo hong run by Howqua.[3]

History

Prior to the establishment of banking institutions other than small foreign bank branches, the three firms that financed most of Hong Kong's economic activities were Jardine's, Dent's and Russell's.[4]

Most of these firms became multinational corporations with management consisting of mostly European expatriates.[5]

By the time of the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, many of the hongs had diversified their holdings and shifted their headquarters offshore away from Hong Kong to avoid any potential communist party takeovers.[5]

Conglomerates of colonial Hong Kong

Note: Below are lists of companies that had a predominant effect on Hong Kong's economy at a particular era. Their noteworthiness is debatable. The official names of the era are used.

1844

1850s

1860s

Gilman and Bowman – established by Richard James Gilman as a tea trader in 1840; taken over by Duncan Paterson of Australia 1917 and turned into a privately held company; bought by Inchcape Group in 1969[6]